Art as an expression of affirmation of the world through the body in terms of Maurice Merleau-Ponty

Abstract

The main topic of Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s philosophical consideration is the problem of carnality: the status of the human body, understanding (in this context) of consciousness and placing a human being in the background of everlasting conflict concerning the relation between the body and the soul. A man is perceived here as embodied  consciousness and this is the statement which breaks the above mentioned dichotomy.

Marleau Ponty emphasizes the meaning of the human body, which becomes a basic tool of perceiving reality, and the contact with it. Owing to the body, a human being can get to know the universe, make a relationship with it, create. This relation has primary, direct, pre-reflective character.

The body is able to read and process a large variety of relations and meanings present in the world of things. Nevertheless, in perceiving them the body meets barriers which result from physical limitations. There are areas inaccessible for senses, and consequently some aspects of reality remain invisible.

This gap in the access to the world is completed by the art. This is what plays a huge role in experiencing human existence, according to Maurice Marleau Ponty. In his book Eye and Mind he states that painting can show what is invisible, and at the same time complete dynamic and ambiguous structure of Being, which consists of: both a man perceived as emboddied consciousness and all what surround them. Within reality understood in this way there is a constant permeation of levels and areas of interaction, and as a result interpretation and creation of new sense.